Hello all!

I have a client (a local church) who recently decided to switch from dial-up
to Verizon DSL. They have two computers with Win98 and WinME that now
connect to the Internet through a Linksys router (not wireless). After
putting in network cards (these are well-seasoned machines) and configuring
Windows to talk with the router (DHCP), everything worked as expected:
internet access was great!

However, the email wasn't working consistently. The first issue was that
replys would not send. Straight emails went fine. Verizon does require
outgoing mail authentication (through the incoming username and password),
so I played around with that setting in various ways. As time went on, the
sending (and the receiving as it turns out) got worse. At times, nothing
would come or go.

I finally told them to contact Verizon and see what they said. Their
solution (after a while) was to go into the Linksys router, and change the
MTU from auto to 1492. And that worked. All the stacked email in the outbox
went away and they started receiving.

I'm very glad it works, but I find it hard to believe that MTU would create
an email issue like that. So, I put it to all of you. Can you explain why
the MTU is so important in this regard?

Thanks!

Will

Will Stephenson
Acadia Technologies Inc.
mailto:[log in to unmask]

There are as many paths to God as there are people to walk them.

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